Total Football?

When Russia and the Netherlands square off today, there will be more than a semi-final birth at Euro 2008 at stake: the rhetorical prize of being today’s instantiation of Total Football is also on the line.

Whenever that Brilliant Orange bursts forth with attacking gusto, the deeds of Rinus Michels, Stefan Kovacs, and Johan Cruijff are suddenly resurrected, with the Dutch believed to have recaptured their heritage from the 1970s.

That, of course, is guff: the Dutch have played some fine, fine football at this tournament, but on a systematic and even aesthetic level, it bears little resemblance to the complex genius of Total Football (“whatever that was”, as ESPN’s Adrian Healey recently pronounced bemusedly).

Here is but the merest glimpse of what Total Football actually was for the Dutch at the 1974 World Cup. Note the overlapping runs, the intense pressure, the high line the defense held, the penetrating runs, the patience to open space, and suddenly, the viper attack.

Russian commentators, referring back to the great ice-hockey teams of the past, spoke of “clap-clap” football, mimicking the way the puck used to click from stick to stick. Others, noting the fact that both goals were laid on by full-backs on the charge, have given Hiddink credit for reawakening a form of total football in Russia, yet that style has always been implicit in the Lobanovskyi school.

Wilson is referring to Valeri Lobanovskyi, coach of Dynamo Kiev in the 1970s, the first to win a major European club title with a Soviet team, noted for his scientific methods of management. Yet Wilson believes that the Russian team is as much following on Lobanovskyi’s footsteps as in that of Ajax’s, that the Russians have their own history of Total Football to draw on.

One of the great fallacies of football history is the notion that the Ajax and Holland of the early Seventies was all about self-expression, while Lobanovskyi’s Dynamo Kyiv was some kind of mechanistic monster. Yes, Lobanovskyi imposed his style of play upon his squad, while Rinus Michels watched his grow up almost organically among an extraordinary group of talented players who had played together for so long that they came to have an almost preternatural understanding of one another’s games, but the central tenets of both were the same. Dynamo and Ajax both played a high offside line, both pressed the opposition in possession, both thrived on rapid passing and the interchange of positions. Most fundamentally, both were about the performance of the individual within the system.

This leads us to the tantalising and fascinating possibility that Russian football today has somehow merged the brilliance of both the Dutch and Soviet variants of Total Football, though of course, the modern game’s compressed nature hardly allows for the kind of self-expression available for a Cruyff (which makes the Russians one-touch brilliance the other night even more admirable, in fact). Those who played close attention to Zenit St. Petersburg’s rapier counter-attacking — under, of course, the Dutchman Dick Advocaat — in their glorious UEFA Cup title run will have seen a presage of Russia’s performance in Euro 2008 the other night, with Arshavin pulling the strings.

Perhaps, by the team you read this, Russia vs. Netherlands will have petered out into a bore draw, stage fright getting the best of the contenders for the Total Football crown, and making such terminology seem laughable. But it is certainly worth remembering, when we hear that phrase bandied around liberally, what Total Football actually was, and its existence outside the confines of the Oranje.

15 Responses to "Total Football?"

It really is going to be something to behold today. Always hard to tell if two attacking, fluid sides will just cancel each other out or create a real back-and-forth masterpiece, but this one is definitely worth the risk. Excellent article.

Great post, Tom. “Total football” is starting to turn into the attacking equivalent of “catenaccio”—terms whose technical meaning is being replaced by broad connotations of “attacking and fun” and “defensive and boring.” I’ve been lazy about this myself, but no more.

A very good point that Wilson has made in other contexts, but which is almost always overlooked by British commentators, is the debt that both Lobanovski’s sides and Hiddink’s current team have to the sublimely brilliant Soviet ice hockey teams of the 70s and 80s. It is absolutely not a coincidence that Arshavin and his colleagues grew up playing hockey in the winter and therefore internalised ideas about movement off the puck/ball and rapid counters that are serving them very well today. The same is true of the great Czech Republic side of a few years ago (Nedved was an excellent ice hockey player and even commentated on the Olympic competition for Italian television).

Hiddink lacks a Tretiak force in goal and his forwards are still much more wasteful than the KLM line (though they do have more than a touch of the Alexi Kovalev about them). And the fact that hockey doesn’t feature corners or free kicks may have something to do with their issues on defending set pieces.

I’ve supported the Oranje for almost 40 years and never felt better about their inevitable elimination. Russia beat them at their own game.

An excellent article. Have got alot of time for Jonathan Wilson after reading one of his books on eastern european football, what a job that guys got! On a side note any one see the facial similarities between Cruyff and Modric?

Great post! I would love to share with you a comment I recently made in one of the posts on my blog.

Here it is…

Competition sports like ice hockey are reminiscent of ancient Rome. Sports
have existed in recorded western cultures as early as Egypt; from Egypt to
Greece, to Rome, to Northern Europe to Canada to the US, and across the globe;
games like hockey have existed in one form or another.

But the Gladiators of Rome are what best describe our culture today. A sport of ice gladiators.

A game of battle and war, of strategy and tactics, ice hockey comes naturally to those who need to move their muscles in achievement of physical goals. Ice hockey is about competition, winning, skill and power, the fundamentals.

From these Beginnings, Ice Hockey eventually evolved as it’s own separate
sport starting with the formation of various amateur leagues, which then lead
to the eventual creation of the professional leagues of today.

An resplendent article. Have got alot of occasion being Jonathan Wilson succeeding declaiming single of his books on eastern european football, what a shooting match that guys got! On a share enthusiasm fraction unparalleled recognize the facial similarities between Cruyff besides Modric?Gary Winnick